As it were

If I were a bit quicker off the mark, I'd have posted the same comment...

Gosh - it'll be gerunds next!!

True. That is subjunctive. I not a native English speaker. I learn English such that I know grammar.. Subjective is one of the most difficult parts of English to many non-native students....

"As" is a rare lead-in of the subjunctive. We are more used to the "if".

As though I were an authority on grammar, I post the above.
As it were, I suppose I could be.

This case is one of Subjunctive Mood. When you use the subjunctive, you are referring to something that factually is not the case – as in "wish."

(My non-technical answer.)

The subjunctive is indeed incorporated into this expression. However, I'd suggest you treat this as a particular idiom along the lines of "so to speak."

Long live the subjunctive! ;)

Drew and semiotek, I know it too. I'm used to "if", "though", "though" without "as", "wish", and even "as" itself leading the subjunctive.

This one bothers me, too. I find the phrase "as it were" to almost always sound stilted, but then again, I am also bothered by "an historic".

'an historic' is probably stilted if 'historic' is actually pronounced with [h]. And maybe even sometimes if it isn't.

Some speakers have it naturally, though, with [h]-deletion conditioned by stress.

If stress is on the first syllable, [h] is pronounced, and 'a' thus appears as the article:

a history book

If stress is not on the first syllable, [h] deletes, and 'an' is selected:

an {h}istoric occasion
an {h}istorical novel

I say "an historic", but I don't pronounce the "h". "As it were" is subjunctive. If you knew grammar, though, you wouldn't ask such stupid questions.

In my own humble opinion, which could be wrong...

If you mean something like "so to speak," you use, "as it were". E.g. No rest for the wicked, as it were.

But if you mean like "something in the past", then you say "as it was". E.g. Life, as it was. or School life, as it was.

Yip dip lip pip chip, as it were, don't ya know, I said, so to speak.

I often hear it used parenthetically, as if it means "as it turns out", or "as it happens to be", which is is not present contrafactual subjunctive.
Example: "He came, five hours too late, as it were."

Agreed it's not a present counterfactual, but it's often listed as a subjunctive fixed expression, along with things like: be that as it may, come what may etc

http://oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/subjunctive